1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a wire grid polarizer, a display device including the same, and a method of fabricating the wire grid polarizer.
2. Discussion of the Background
A wire grid consists of parallel conductive wires arranged to transmit only light of a specific polarization, from among electromagnetic waves transmitted thereto.
A wire grid structure having a period smaller than a wavelength of received unpolarized light, reflects light polarized in the direction of wires, and transmits light polarized in a direction perpendicular to the wires. Thus, the wire grid structure has the advantage in that the reflected polarized light may be reused, unlike an absorptive polarizer.
Because the wire grid structure is formed of a conductive material, it may react with an electrode, etc., inside a display device, thus causing the display device to malfunction. For this reason, a protective layer formed of a material having good thermal resistance may be coated on the wire grid structure.
In the process of forming the protective layer, however, spaces in the wire grid structure may be filled with the material having thermal resistance. In this case, transmittance and polarization characteristics of the wire grid structure are degraded, as compared with the state in which the spaces in the wire grid structure are filled with air.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate that as a refractive index of spaces g in a wire grid and a refractive index t of a protective layer increase, the transmittance and extinction ratio of the wire grid in a visible range decrease.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and, therefore, it may contain information that does not constitute prior art.